Wrestling legend Roberts conquers his demons

Jake Roberts is a proud man. Always has been. The tough Texan is, after all, one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Few could match his skills inside a squared circle, even fewer could touch him on a microphone.

Those skills and that Texas toughness and pride took him to the top of wrestling’s mountain, and made him rich and famous.

But with that wealth and fame came temptation, drugs and alcohol. And, unfortunately for Roberts, a fall from grace that became wrestling’s example of how just how poorly things could go.

Roberts became as famous for his fall from grace as he did for his rise to stardom in World Wrestling Entertainment. Shocking footage of an inebriated Roberts went viral, showing the once agile and fear-inducing Roberts falling over the ropes, struggling to stay on his feet.

Miraculously, Roberts has regained his pride, thanks to sheer determination, Texas toughness, and the help of his longtime friend and fellow wrestler Diamond Dallas Page

Roberts’ journey to sobriety is the subject of a new documentary, one that paints him in a much better light, and one that Page himself orchestrated and produced. The film, The Resurrection of Jake The Snake, is an at-times gut-wrenching look at Roberts at his worst—overweight, greying and essentially on death’s door—and chronicles his triumph over his demons.

The film is a very real look at one man’s battle to regain his health, his career and his family. (Another wrestler with drug and alcohol addiction struggles, Scott Hall, figures prominently in the documentary too.)

For Roberts, who was also featured unfavourably in a previous wrestling documentary entitled Beyond the Mat, putting himself out there again for a film was not something he had any interest in.

“It was real tough for me to do this because I’d had a bad experience with filmmakers; a group that really coloured me bad and lied and really tore my family up too and it was pretty ugly,” Roberts said in a telephone interview, referring to Beyond the Mat.

When DDP approached Roberts with the idea of chronicling Roberts’ battles, Jake the Snake wanted nothing to do with the idea.

“At first I was like ‘Hell no,’” Roberts said. But in the end, DDP promised that if Roberts didn’t like the final result, the film would never see the light of day.

The film looks at the difficulties Roberts faced with addiction, his health, and his lack of belief in himself. It doesn’t pull any punches. It shows a fragile Roberts, unable to do so much as a pushup. It shows a rejuvenated Roberts, weeks into his DDP yoga sessions, bolstered by his early success. It shows an angry Roberts, lashing out at his friend and mentor at an airport following a “couple of beers.” It shows a determined Roberts, pushing his beaten-up body to its limits. It shows an emotional Roberts, grateful for fan support that helped pay for a needed surgery to keep him going in the right direction. It shows a sympathetic Roberts, using what he’d learned about himself to help Hall when he shows up in similar shape to what Roberts was on Day 1. And it shows a defiant and reinvigorated Roberts, his demons conquered and his life back on track.

The movie became as much a part of the journey to sobriety as the yoga and clean living, Roberts admits. It became, in many ways, the driving force.

“As I went through the process of getting sober, I started thinking about all the people I could help, how many lives I could change, how many lives I could save, how many people could I help get them on the right (path), too. It’s still difficult for me to watch (the film). I don’t like watching it because I don’t like that guy. I don’t like looking at the guy. It’s disgusting. I can’t believe that I let myself go like that. But that’s where I was at.”

Ultimately, Roberts OK’d the release of the film, which is available for download on iTunes.

“It was, ‘Dude, you can’t not show this because this gives people hope,” Roberts said of his thinking. “That’s something I didn’t have. I didn’t have hope. I didn’t have anymore dreams. I was done.”

The film, Roberts said, helped him hold himself accountable.

“It’s a funny thing about addiction or secrets,” Roberts said. “You don’t tell people about your problems. You stuff it in a closet or under the bed or whatever and that just becomes poison to you. You’ve got to bring these problems out to the light.”

The Resurrection of Jake The Snake allowed Roberts to put his demons in the spotlight.

“The more you talk about it, the easier it gets,” he said. “The more you stick it out there into the light, you take away the power of that secret,” he said, every bit as eloquently as he would have 20 years ago while cutting one of his legendary, chilling promos. “It’s what we all have to do to get better. I know I feel really good right now. My life is so awesome. I’ve got my family back together, I feel positive, I’ve got a future, I’ve got so much happiness. And none of that would have happened had I not gotten clean. And I’ll never be able to thank Dallas enough for giving me my life (back).”

Roberts was the first person to see the completed film and, as promised by Page, he was given the chance to decide whether it would be released.

“They just left me to watch it,” Roberts said of watching the film for the first time at Page’s house, where Roberts moved to battle his demons. “Afterwards they gave me some time (to digest what I’d seen).”

What he saw was life-changing, Roberts said.

“I was just blown away,” he recalled. “It was very painful to watch.”

But at the same time, Roberts said, it gave him some clarity.

“You watch yourself on that roller coaster and then it finally sinks in that you’re OK now. You’re good now. It’s like that T-shirt that I made, ‘My history will not be my destiny.’ That means so much to me because I know what I was and I know how I am today. It angers me that I just threw away 25 years of my life. I threw away a career. I threw away family. I threw away everything … for a frigging drug. It’s just disgusting. But that’s what addiction is.”

Roberts gives much of the credit for his triumph over addiction to his friend Page.

“I hope people pull away from the film not so much of what I did, but more of what Dallas did,” Roberts said. “He opened his house to two drug addicts, two alcoholics and stayed on us, helped us and played dad, played caretaker, played boss, played everything. That took a lot.

“We, as people, need to do more of that. Most people in this situation would have just wrote us off and turned their backs and went on with their lives. We all know somebody who’s just a pain in the ass, or we know who’s trouble – is he going to be drunk or sober? – we all know that guy. And a lot of us have written those people off. We don’t answer their phone calls anymore. We ignore them or whatever. Those people are going to die. We need to think about that. Dallas doing what he did is just unbelievable.”

Roberts doesn’t sell himself short when it comes to his victory. Far from it. The most important lesson he learned in the process, he said, was giving in.

“I had to completely surrender, just completely surrender,” he said, incredible clarity shining through with each passing word. “I didn’t have anything left. Right and wrong didn’t matter anymore. I just had to completely surrender and say, ‘You know, whatever is asked of me I’m going to do it,’ because I was no longer able to make good choices. My choices were horrible. Every time I drove the car it was a wreck, so let somebody else drive it,” he said with a chuckle. “So I handed it over to Dallas. Yes, bottom line, it was me who put the work in, yeah, I get that, but without that direction, it would’ve never happened. Without that stability, it would have never happened. Without that love, it would have never happened. It was a hell of a ride and I’m still riding it. I’ve got four years (of sobriety) now. I certainly never thought it was going to happen. It’s crazy. I don’t miss it.”

In many ways, Roberts’ life and career can now be broken into three different eras. We’ve seen him at his best, a second-generation star dominating the pro wrestling business like few before him or since. We’ve seen him defeated, basically a ticking time bomb of death. And now we’ve seen him triumphant, smiling once again and with that glimmer in his eye.

The latter, Roberts admits, makes him feel proud.

“I’m not ashamed to look in the mirror anymore,” he said. “I used to hate looking in the mirror. I hated myself. Hell, I took most mirrors down in my house because I just couldn’t stand the sight of myself. And now I have no problem looking at it. I like to get out, I like to visit with the fans, I’m doing these comedy shows now all over the world and I love doing that.”

Roberts returns to Ontario this weekend to do another leg of his Unspoken Word tour, which stops in Kingston on Sunday at Absolute Comedy.

The tours offer Roberts a chance to mingle with fans, an eye-opening experience for the man himself, who now recognizes the love that exists out there among wrestling fans for the burly Texan who made slinging a snake inside a ring just about the coolest thing in wrestling.

“They’ll come up to me after a show and they’ll tell me about different things. They’ll talk about their favourite moment that I was involved in, they’ll talk about seeing the movie, they’ll talk about seeing the comedy show and how much fun it was listening to all of the road stories and all of the crazy antics that we pulled on each other. It’s just good times man. My life is just sweet now.

“I don’t know why, but fans reward me daily by continuing to enjoy what I did. And with the WWE Network being out there and available, I’ve got a whole new fan base.”

Perhaps best of all, Roberts no longer has to run from the demons that once not only effectively ended his career in its prime but which nearly ended his life. He faced those demons head on, with help, and he effectively DDT’d them.

“You have memories come back,” Roberts said when asked if his demons still chase him. “Memories are funny. The first thing that comes back is, ‘Damn, what a good time I had smoking that s–t, you know.’ ‘Oh man, when I was so high, that felt so good.’ And then I remember the rest of the story. And the rest of the story was, ‘Yeah, what did you feel like that night when you ran out and you were going crazy and you were sweating and you were sick and the next day when you got up, you felt like crap and you hated life and you realized what else you’d destroyed.’ You’ve got to remember the whole story.

“Demons, they paint a pretty picture. They don’t like to show you the ugly stuff. That’s something you have to be careful of.”

Roberts hopes The Resurrection of Jake The Snake, his triumph over addiction, and his return to the only business he’s ever loved helps and inspires others.

“There have been some people who’ve gotten in touch with me who have either lost a family member or gained one back and I’ve had several contact me and say that watching this movie has either moved them or somebody very close to them to getting help,” Roberts said. “Those are the ones that I like to remember because I’ve inspired somebody to try, to try to get clean, to try to get healthy, to try to get their families back.”

In the meantime, Roberts will continue to travel the globe in support of his film and his comedy show. He once lobbied publicly for World Wrestling Entertainment to allow him to have one final appearance in the company’s Royal Rumble, something that has yet to happen. That won’t stop Roberts from taking independent bookings in the meantime, he said.

“There’s no greater place to be for me than in that ring,” he said, the fire still in his voice.

For information on The Resurrection of Jake The Snake, go to http://www.jakethesnakemovie.com/

For information on Roberts’ Unspoken Word Tour, go to https://www.facebook.com/Kanary-Entertainment-854889254582785/.

Tickets: $25 general admission, $80 VIP, which includes a ticket to the show, a Jake the Snake tour t-shirt, a personally autographed 8×10 picture, a buffet style dinner at Absolute Comedy with Jake the Snake and a free pass to a future comedy show at the club. This promotion is limited to 40 people only. At the dinner you can freely chat with the Hall of Famer, and have pictures taken in a smaller more intimate setting.